Chan 3105 Book Cover.qxd 20/9/06 10:30 am Page 1 GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS CHAN 3105 CHANDOS O PERA IN DENNIS O’NEILL SINGS MORE FAVOURITE TENOR ARIAS ENGLISH PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 2 Dennis O’Neill sings More Favourite Arias Session photo: Dennis O’Neill 3 CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 4 Time Page Time Page Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857–1919) from Attila from Pagliacci (The Touring Company) Trio of Odabella, Foresto and Ezio (Te sol, te sol quest’anima) Canio’s Aria (Vesti la giubba) 5 ‘Foresto, my soul belongs to you’ 3:09 [p. 55] with Janice Watson soprano and Alan Opie baritone 1 ‘Go on stage…’ – ‘Put on your costume’ 3:48 [p. 52] from CHAN 3003 Pagliacci (Gaetano Donizetti) Matteo Salvi from The Duke of Alba Marcello’s Recitative and Aria (Angelo casto e bel) Amilcare Ponchielli (1834–1886) 6 ‘Here, unobserved in this chapel’ – from La Gioconda ‘Angel of love divine!’ 6:21 [p. 55] Enzo’s Aria (Cielo e mar) 2 ‘Heaven and sea!’ 5:05 [p. 52] Umberto Giordano (1867–1948) from Andrea Chenier Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) Chenier’s Aria (Un dì all’azzurro spazio) from Aida 7 ‘One day, gazing at the splendour of Heav’n’s blue Radames’ Recitative and Aria (Celeste Aida) distance’ 4:36 [p. 56] 3 ‘I pray that I be chosen’ – Chenier’s Improvviso (Come un bel dì di Maggio) ‘Goddess Aida’ 4:40 [p. 53] 8 ‘Just like a day in May time’ 3:03 [p. 57] from CHAN 3074(2) Aida from Il trovatore (The Troubadour) Giuseppe Verdi Aria and Cabaletta (Ah sì, ben mio – Di quella pira) from Otello 4 ‘When holy church has blessed our love’ – Otello and Iago’s Duet (Sì, pel ciel marmoreo giuro) ‘That fierce inferno, her cruel sentence’ 8:43 [p. 53] 9 ‘Ah! Would that God had given him a thousand lives!’ – with Sharon Sweet soprano, Marc Le Brocq tenor and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir ‘Yes, I swear by skies of marble’ 2:58 [p. 57] from CHAN 3036(2) Il trovatore with Alan Opie baritone 4 5 CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 6 Time Page Time Page Otello’s Death (Niun mi tema) BONUS TRACKS 10 ‘Do not fear me’ 5:34 [p. 58] Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) from Armida Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) Trio of Rinaldo, Carlo and Ubaldo (In quale aspetto imbelle) from Tosca 15 ‘I lost the will to action’ 3:23 [p. 61] Cavaradossi’s Recitative and Aria with Bruce Ford tenor and Barry Banks tenor 11 ‘Give me my palette!’ – from CHAN 3100 Great Operatic Arias: Bruce Ford 2 ‘How strange a thing is beauty’ 4:04 [p. 58] with Andrew Shore baritone Giacomo Puccini from CHAN 3000(2) Tosca from La bohème from The Girl of the Golden West Rodolfo’s Aria (Che gelida manina) Johnson’s Aria (Ch’ella mi creda) 16 ‘Your tiny hand is frozen!’ 4:46 [p. 61] 12 ‘Let her believe that I have gained my freedom’ 2:20 [p. 59] from CHAN 3008(2) La bohème TT 72:52 Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945) from Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) London Philharmonic Orchestra (tracks 1, 2, 4–10 & 12–15) Turiddu’s Drinking Song (Brindisi) Philharmonia Orchestra (tracks 3, 11 & 16) 13 ‘My friends, don’t go away’ – Gareth Hancock assistant conductor (tracks 2, 5–10, 12 & 15) ‘Neighbours, with a glass I meet you’ 2:56 [p. 59] David Parry with Diana Montague mezzo-soprano and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Finale 14 ‘Mamma, mamma, this new wine really is powerful’ 5:56 [p. 60] with Nelly Miricioiu soprano, Diana Montague mezzo-soprano, Elizabeth Bainbridge contralto and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir from CHAN 3004 Cavalleria rusticana 6 7 CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 8 © Clive Barda/ArenaPAL© Clive Barda/ArenaPAL© Clive Dennis O’Neill in the title role of Dennis O’Neill as Carlo in The Royal Opera’s production The Royal Opera’s production of Verdi’s Otello of Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco 8 9 CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 10 latter; or, rather, it would have been if daughter of the Lord of Aquileia; and Foresto, More Favourite Arias Donizetti had not left it half-finished in 1839. an Aquileian knight. Attila has antagonised all After a controversy in which Ponchielli, the three: Ezio, whose dishonourable proposal to Opera began in Italy at the end of the sixteenth included six tenor roles, though as two roles composer of La Gioconda, was involved, it was combine forces against the Roman emperor he century. It was a deliberate attempt by a group were doubled only four singers were required. completed by, among others, Donizetti’s friend has rejected; Odabella, whose father he has of noblemen in Florence to recreate the world The part of Rinaldo was taken by Andrea and pupil Matteo Salvi, and performed in killed in battle; and Foresto, who is Odabella’s of the ancient Greek tragedies, which they Nozzari, who had starred in Rossini’s Otello Rome in 1882. The libretto had already been lover. mistakenly believed to have been sung the previous year; Armida was sung by used, duly adapted, for Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers When Odabella saves Attila from being throughout. Italian opera retained its pre- Barbaia’s mistress, Isabella Colbran, who was (1855). poisoned by Foresto, only because she herself eminence for nearly three centuries: so much so later to become Rossini’s first wife. The historical Duke of Alba is notorious for wishes to take revenge, Attila vows to marry that in nineteenth-century London, operas Based on the epic poem Gerusalemme his brutal treatment of the Flemish subjects of her. The ensuing complications lead to written in German, French or even English liberata by Torquato Tasso, published in 1581, King Philip II of Spain. In the opera, Marcello the trio, ‘Foresto, my soul belongs to you’ were regularly sung in Italian translation. But if the story had attracted composers from of Bruges, who with his lover Amelia is the (track 5 ), after which Attila is indeed stabbed we except the operas by foreigners such as Monteverdi to Haydn. Armida, a Saracen leader of a rebellion against the Spaniards, is by Odabella. He dies with the equivalent of Handel, Gluck and Mozart, there was surely no sorceress, has come to Jerusalem to seduce appalled to discover that he is Alba’s Julius Caesar’s ‘Et tu, Brute?’ on his lips. more glorious period in the history of Italian Rinaldo, leader of the Christian knights illegitimate son. ‘Angel of love divine!’ (track Verdi’s next opera for La Fenice was opera than the one covered on this recording, embarked on the First Crusade. Near the end 6 ), one of Salvi’s additions, comes at the Rigoletto (1851). By this time, he was the most from Rossini to Puccini. This was the century of the opera, Carlo and Ubaldo recall the beginning of the last Act. Amelia’s father, celebrated and sought-after opera composer in that saw the disappearance of the male besotted Rinaldo to his senses by showing him referred to in the introductory recitative, is the the world. Il trovatore (The Troubadour, soprano in heroic roles and the emergence, as his reflection in a shield. The first part of the patriot Egmont, subject of the play by Goethe 1853), based on a play by Antonio García lover and/or warrior, of the tenor. Since the ensuing trio, ‘I lost the will to action’ to which Beethoven wrote his incidental Gutiérrez already used by two other 1980s, Dennis O’Neill has appeared in this (track 15 ), is a canon, where each voice has music. composers, was first produced at the Teatro taxing repertory in opera houses all over the the same music in turn. Verdi’s career as a composer of opera lasted Apollo in Rome. Set in fifteenth-century world. Between Rossini’s last opera, William Tell over fifty years, from Oberto (1839) to Falstaff Spain, it concerns the rivalry of Manrico and Tenors were certainly thick on the ground (1828) and Verdi’s first great success, Nabucco (1893). Attila (1846) was commissioned by the Count di Luna for the love of Leonora. In in Naples, where Rossini’s Armida was (1842), the scene was dominated by Donizetti the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where Ernani ‘When holy church has blessed our love’ (track produced in 1817. It was commissioned by and Bellini. Like Rossini, Donizetti was a had been a great success two years earlier. 4 ) Leonora is about to be married to the impresario Domenico Barbaia for the master of both comic and serious opera. Besides Attila the Hun, there are three Manrico, the troubadour of the title. Their opening of the rebuilt San Carlo theatre and it The Duke of Alba was an example of the principals: Ezio, a Roman general; Odabella, loving exchanges, as the organ plays in the 10 11 CHAN 3105 BOOK.qxd 20/9/06 10:36 am Page 12 adjacent chapel, are rudely interrupted by the Aida, a slave of Amneris, the daughter of the melodic line. The great duet that concludes Misérables, and produced at La Scala, Milan, news that Azucena, the gypsy whom Manrico King of Egypt. Act II (track 9 ) is a magnificent example of in 1876. believes to be his mother, is to be burnt at the Radames is victorious and he returns with the former.